Anyone
can pay retail for high fashion. These local shops offer
great deals—without making you schlep to the outlet
mall.

BY SUSAN AVERY

If you want to pay retail
for high-end kidswear, there’s plenty of opportunity
to drop some serious coin around the city. If you’re
looking for designer duds at bargain prices, a good
number of discounters are out there as well. While some
of them may not want to be known as off-price shops,
the fact is, when you can pick up a pair of $50 Tractor
jeans for $12, the term less expensive is an
understatement.

• Start with the semi-annual sale at Space
Kiddets in the Flatiron district. Every January
and June, it holds a 50-to-70-percent-off sale of both
in-season designer wear and goods from the coveted cottage-industry
houses. If those months don’t fit into your schedule,
Space Kiddets maintains a rack of clothing that is 70
percent off the previous season’s prices throughout
the other ten months of the year.

• A huge selection of discounted kidswear at
Burlington Coat
Factory includes mostly middle-of-the-road clothing
for those knock-around days.

• At Century
21 (in the financial district and in Brooklyn),
those with a craving for grown-up labels on a miniature
wardrobe will devour the European lines: Dolce & Gabbana
and Versace, to name two, which are at least 40 percent
off Madison Avenue prices.

• If you want to brag that you shop in Chicville,
check out Children’s
Resale, on the Upper East Side. Don’t
worry about the used factor: Owner Myrna Skoller accepts
only the best of the best, i.e., high-end French lines
Jacadi and Bonpoint.

• A couple of blocks away is Good-Byes,
where mothers who lunch drop off designer clothing that
their private-school kids have grown out of. Recent
acquisitions include Ralph Lauren, Petit Bateau, Catimini,
and Lili Gaufrette.

• If you don’t want to spend money on things
no one sees, you’ll find barrels of basics—underwear,
socks, onesies, and pajamas—at Kidstown
on 14th Street for bargain-basement prices.